Archive for August 22, 2014

The following is a guest post by Max Murphy, a mechanical engineering student who is interested in the implications of 3D printing or positive manufacturing for mechanical design, its synergies with animation, and potential for fostering new opportunities for entrepreneurs. Max is an intern at DreamWorks and returns to his sophomore year in college this fall.

3D Printing: Past, Present, and Future

I attended a great talk by Chris Yonge on “3D Printing: Past, Present, and Future” on Monday August 18 at Sandbox Suites in Sunnyvale that was sponsored by the Silicon Valley Startup: Idea to IPO group. It was a fantastic presentation that communicated a practical understanding of several different types of 3D printing processes with videos that highlighted the theory of operation for each type of printer. Chris also offered a list of useful open source tools for mechanical design, animation, and 3D printing that is available at http://www.studiocruz.com/downloads/studio-cruz-open-source-guide-20130115.pdf

3D Printing Is Fostering Four Quiet Revolutions

How we make: Machine shop equipment was traditionally subtractive: grinding, cutting, drilling based on linear or rotary motion.

How we design: Three-dimensional printing is enabling us to go from a three-dimensional model in my mind to recording it and communicating and editing it on a computer and then making it.

How we communicate: One of the oldest cave drawings known condenses three dimensions plus time (and related emotions) into a flat two dimensional drawing. Our ability to communicate was unchanged for 149 centuries until motion pictures added time, 3D computer models allowed for a third dimension, and now we can make what we visualize with 3D printing.

How we finance: Open source recipes are going unlock a tremendous amount of creativity. Kickstarter models will enable many new products and companies to be launched via crowdsourcing.